Forty two participants started off the beach in our eagerly anticipated Handicap event. Racing for the first time in Mandurah, Reece Sheridan was the first athlete to cross the line, winning the event with a corrected time of 50:17. Josie Canna consistently worked her way around the course to become the second athlete to complete the race with a corrected time of 58:03 and Linda Ray, returning to triathlon after a break for several years, put in a great effort to clinch third place with a corrected time of 58:23.

This event was a bit of a novelty, because the slower triathletes started off from the beach first, and the quicker triathletes, starting later, faced the challenge of overtaking them, with varying degrees of success. The easterly breeze freshened as the race progressed, making conditions exacting on the bike leg. The faster triathletes find it more difficult to lower their times, but among the more impressive improvements, a hard working Sandy Harvey sliced from 2:15 from her previous best time and Jo Kelly-Wilson’s strong performance enabled her to lower her time by 2:50. Alisha Williams put in an earnest effort throughout the race, slicing a gigantic 6 minutes from her previous best time and Ted MacNeal, continuing his improvement after a forced break because of injury, bettered his previous time by a minute and a half.

Janelle Crooks did very well to slice 1:18 off her time, finishing in 45:20 and Tony Stretch clipped 35 seconds off, finishing in 46:26. John Gow took 21 seconds off his time and Darren Swire bettered his previous best time by a minute.

We had a lot of new faces in the race. Welcome to Reece Sheridan, who won the event. Alex Galbraith, Tom Medland, Kelly Carter, Matt Perris, Emily McRedmond, Katherine Humphreys, Aaron Williams, Trent Derecourt and Sam Walker were all participating for the first time at Doddie’s Beach. Well done, and welcome to all!